We're pretty flaky for a bunch of guys who live under constant deadlines, but hurl us a challenge and we'll refuse to fail—unless the challenge is to hand in a story on time or to get a car completed without the urgency of a target that promises the satisfaction of vehicular superstardom. Delusion as motivation—try it some time.

2/28

Distracted by other shiny objects, we've failed to get our '70 Dodge Super Bee on the road after many stalled attempts, so we created our own criticality: We announced that we'd drive the Bee to the Moparty at the Strip show and race, and that we'd have it on the cruise from Glendora Dodge in California to the event in Las Vegas on April 7.

We're writing this intro three weeks before we need to leave. The Bee is in the shop at HOT ROD headquarters and the drivetrain is scattered around town. We've been stockpiling parts to redo the suspension and brakes as well as the fuel, cooling, and electrical systems, though several critical components are on back order and unforeseen needs will certainly redline our credit card during the next 21 days. There's a long list of to-dos to resurrect this Mopar that has not seen the streets since about 1993.

Read on for a blow-by-blow of a HOT ROD thrashfest, and don't forget that in the midst of this we're also doing other magazine stories and sticking our toes into HOT ROD's website, TV and radio shows, and events. We started this diary March 16, retracing our steps back to late January and then making installments each evening. Live it along with us, and watch for the trip to Moparty at the Strip in next month's story or in our video at YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine.

January 24
The Bee has been in our shop for months, receiving occasional attention between other projects and corporate demands. This is the day after the Crusher Camaro road trip ("Road Kill," May '11) and we hit the Bee hard, installing an S60 rearend from Strange Engineering. It carries 3.73s instead of our old 5.13s and has a Strange S-Trac diff the company tells us can easily survive our Hemi's power (675 on motor, 900 on the hose). It's a gear-type limited-slip and is clearly more street friendly than the former spool. There are three videos on YouTube.com/HotRodMagazine that cover the S60 rearend options.

3/28The Strange Engineering S60 rear axle with 3.73s and a new S-Trac diff.

January 25
Old-school Mopar guys think Super Stock springs and an adjustable pinion snubber are an otherworldly traction elixir, but we've had better success with CalTracs bars, and today we installed some under our old leaf springs and threw away our adjustable snubber. It took four hours running around to find a trailer shop that would bend leaf-spring U-bolts for our setup. We remembered to order the CalTracs for the A-Body-spec, 20-inch front leaf-spring segments of the Mopar Super Stock leaf springs that were installed when the car was mini-tubbed.

Our company is having a big industry party tonight and we were told to make the Bee look presentable. That included installing our Weld Racing RT series WeldStar wheels, which are the company's affordable, three-piece, forged street/strip wheels. Ours have black-anodized centers and are sizes 15x4 with 2-inch backspacing and 15x12.25 (which are really closer to 13.25) with 6.25-inch backspacing, which we spec'd based on the overall width of our S60 rear and Wilwood disc-brake hats. Weld Racing offers low- and medium-height wheel pads, the latter to clear large calipers, and we went with the medium.

The Bee used to wear Goodyear Frontrunners in 28x7.50-15 and slicks in 30x12.50-15. Our new, streetable rubber is from Mickey Thompson, with 28x7.50-15 Sportsman Fronts (that are shorter than the old Goodyears) and ET Street Radials in P315/60R15, also called 30x13.50-15. We messed up the math, so the mounted tires are too close to the rear quarters, plus our rear wheels are too wide for the tires. We'll be buying a second set of rear wheels.

February 3
Our Hemi has been leaking oil on the floor at Westech ever since we tested it there, but Finnegan brought it home today. It's the 484ci Dick Landy Hemi that we revamped in the Aug. and Sept. '10 issues. It made a best of 673 hp at 6,400 rpm and 612 lb-ft at 4,700, or 900-plus horsepower and almost 750 lb-ft on nitrous.

March 4
We wanted to powdercoat some things, including the intake manifold. We tried to take them to the coater a couple of weeks ago, but who knew the shop would be closed for President's Day? We finally got them in today, but the shop says they might not be able to finish the job in time.

March 6
Mike Landy taught us long ago to test-fit headers and starters with the engine on a stand. Sometimes Landy even prehung engine mounts and K-members to make sure everything fit, especially with aftermarket external oil systems. We plan to use an internal pickup this time, but we verified that the TTI 2 1⁄8-inch headers will work with external oiling. Next we tore down the Hemi to paint it Dupli-Color Chrysler Hemi Orange.

March 8
When the Bee was rebuilt in 1995 it had Wilwood disc brakes, but they were the drag-only style with solid rotors. Since this 4,000-pound car will see more street miles, we converted all four corners to Wilwood's vented rotors and newer billet calipers that use internal crossover tubes. Finnegan installed the front brakes today and learned how to do his first safety-wiring job to secure the rotors to the hats.

March 9
The powdercoating shop called to say they'd blown a hole in our one-off, irreplaceable intake manifold while sandblasting it. Aaarrrggghhh! They couldn't give a real description of what happened. We're freaked and can't go pick it up for days.

March 10
During a decade of neglect, leaky brake lines turned firewall paint into rubbery goo. Finnegan found a shop that put the Bee's Go-Mango hue into a rattle can to simplify the fix.

8/28Fixing the brake-fluid paint mess.

The rear Wilwood discs, with integral parking brakes, went together today. The rotors are E-coated in black and look trick; Wilwood tells us the coating comes off the face of the rotors the first time they're used, but it remains on the vanes and hubs to prevent rust.

We started playing with the fuel system today. We wanted to eliminate the Bee's fuel cell and revert to a stock tank with one of the weld-in universal sump units with an integral pump and filter from Aeromotive. The bummer is that the sump is too wide to fit between the gas tank straps. We might not be able to use it.

March 14
Back in January, we decided the Super Stock leaf springs made the car sit like a truck and weren't ideal with the CalTracs, so we bought Calvert Racing's monoleaf springs. They showed up the next day, but we didn't install them until now. We spec'd 2-inch drop springs, but so far they don't look lower than stock. We presume they'll settle.

After trying to think of every last thing we'd need to plumb the car, we placed a big order with Earl's today.

We finally picked up the intake manifold, and sure enough, the shop blasted through a runner where it was thin from Landy's custom porting. Someone even hammered a screwdriver into the epoxy in the plenum. Aaarrrggghhh! again. Fortunately, our shop manager, Grant Peterson, can TIG-weld, so he fixed the aluminum, adding to the intake's Frankenstein effect. Finnegan has a buddy at Embee Coatings who says he'll crank out the intake and water pump coating overnight.

March 16
Urgency became mild panic today. Between time out for family stuff, event coverage, magazine production, and Finnegan's drag boat race, we've got just 10 days in the shop before we hit the road.

Our 1050 Ultra Dominator carb and NOS Big Shot system showed up today, and we made the decision to run an Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump and filters next to the old fuel cell, replacing the former SuperFlow pump that was gummed with 15-year-old gas.

It took four hours to install new Hotchkis strut rods in the front suspension because one of the old ones had welded itself to the lower control arm, and not even an air hammer could get it out. When we built this car with Dick Landy, he advised shortening the strut rods to pull the lower control arms forward for extra caster. That made it hard to steer on the street and put the lower control arm bushings in a bind. The Hotchkis rods have spherical bearings in the K-member end to eliminate the rubber bushings, freeing up the suspension movement and eliminating deflection. They're also length adjustable.

March 17
Finnegan went to his own shop this morning to make a bracket for the A1000 pump using the holes drilled in the trunk floor for the old fuel pump. Grant mounted the Wilwood master cylinder after much cursing from under the dash and started to replumb the brakes.

Typical of our world-class procrastination, we waited until now to buy the new Weld Wheels in 15x8 1⁄2. We pulled strings with our friends there to bump up delivery time, but they still say the wheels may not make it in time. We made our problem their problem and felt OK about it.

March 18
It took all day to move the Hemi and the trans from home to the shop. To reach the transmission we had to push the Crusher out of the way and jump-start it three times, then fix a hub on our '67 Impala, push it out of the way, and jump-start it three times. At least it only took two runs to the parts store to get the correct wheel studs. And it rained.

14/28Undaunted by mere rain. After all, we’re Californians.

March 21
Today was huge, with the engine and trans mocked and the headers fitted. We debated the merits of regular engine mounts versus a motor plate and finally settled on regular mounts. Grant welded the main pipes of our TTI 3-inch, mandrel-bent exhaust kit.

15/28The Hemi and the Bee, reunited.

March 22
This was a first for us: We drilled holes in our engine block. There's a long story here, starting with the tip that Hemi engine mounts are different from wedge big-block mounts. Our Hemi block was one of the first Mopar reproductions, and it was made with 440-style ears. In 1995, that helped bolt the engine to the car but required custom headers that dragged on everything in the road. We wanted to run the sweet TTI headers this time, and they work with the special engine-mount brackets from Schumacher Creative Services that allow Hemis to bolt to normal V8 K-members. Our block had the Hemi-style pads cast into them, but they were not machined or drilled. So, using the Schumacher units as templates, we drilled and tapped the engine-mount boltholes. Scary. TTI provides specs on engine location for proper header fitment, and that helped.

16/28Drilling the Hemi for motor mounts.

The engine was in and out nine times today, and we test-fit our supercool valve covers from Stage V. These Hemi covers look right and have hold-down bolts that can be accessed on the very tight passenger side. The Stage V units in black wrinkle were perfect, and Cassel Enterprises offers them with pressed tubes for the stock oil breather caps.

We whittled the long to-do list and spent more money. We've been to Pep Boys five days in a row and made another rush order from Summit. Today we ordered a bunch of ARP stainless 12-point bolts for the engine compartment. We've always wanted to have nice, matching fasteners everywhere in sight. Our wallet couldn't care less what the fasteners look like.

March 24
We started to plumb the fuel system under the car. The old braided lines were suspect after sitting dry for so long and we wanted to change the fittings to Earl's Ano-Tuff black ones. We protected the fuel lines with heat-reflective sleeving from DEI.

Our respect for the TTI exhaust system grew today. We mocked the entire thing and were amazed how well it fit with no bashing or cussing. It became an even happier day when the UPS guy brought us a box of ARP bolts to fondle.

March 28
We planned to replace our cracked, leaking, aluminum oil pan with a steel one, and our buddy Ken Sink at Milodon offered to give us one of the road-race pans that has extra capacity without hanging low. It was on back order and just showed up today. We'd installed the engine with no pan, but the Bee's K-member is modified so the pan can be R&R'd in the car. Even so, we had to trim an inside lip to get the new pan past the pickup with the transmission in the way.

The Milodon PN 31580 has dual kickouts and trap doors to keep oil in the sump during cornering and braking. We removed the side doors to provide more volume to the pickup at high rpm and because the Bee is no G machine. We left the fore/aft doors in place.

The engine, trans, headers, and starter are installed for the last time. We hope. The TTI headers require a ministarter, and Powermaster's PN 9523, a 4.4:1 gear-reduction unit, fit perfectly after being clocked by one position. By pulling out the torsion bar, the starter goes in and out with the header bolted in place.

March 29
We worked from 9:00 a.m. to 11:15 p.m. today, and it's hard to say what we really did. Fiddling, mostly. More plumbing, brake lines, heat shielding, messing with the shifter cable, tightening things up, and planning. Finnegan took the intake to the new coating shop.

March 30
Fourteen hours burned today, from around noon until 2:00 a.m. A major accomplishment was final-welding the exhaust, which took a little bashing to clear our custom driveshaft loop we'd forgotten to install earlier. Grant and Finnegan spent hours bleeding the brakes and something is still very funky about the pedal feel.

20/28Aeromotive fuel-system jewelry.

Over the past few days we've walked in circles holding the Aeromotive fuel-pressure regulator, trying to decide where to mount it. We finalized it today, and we're pretty happy with it on the right front inner fender. The regulator is Aeromotive's stackable unit with three segments: a primary regulator to set system pressure (say, 10 psi), a second for pressure to the carb (probably 6 to 7 psi), and a third to feed the nitrous unit (5 to 15 psi, depending on how you like to tune).

The intake and water pump came back from Embee Performance Coatings. They did an awesome job in gloss aluminum.

March 31
We pounded on the Bee for 19 hours straight, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., then ran to catch a flight to North Carolina for the ECTA event at Maxton. At 5:00 a.m. we realized we'd been locked into the shop. That was ugly. Kinnan was out sick today, and he's been doing all the magazine work while we were wrenching, so we had to actually edit stuff. We also photographed the welding story in this issue, and the Bee got registered for the first time since 1997.

We permanently installed the intake manifold twice because the rear seal slipped the first time; the end gaps were too big to fill with RTV. That killed $40 worth of gaskets and an excruciating five hours. Finalizing the intake and water pump opened floodgates of progress as we ripped on the accessory drive and hung our Powermaster alternator, a 94-amp unit in a stock Chrysler squirrel-cage case; we also replaced our Mopar constant-output voltage regulator with a streetable stocker. It took just three tries to get the correct fan belt. The measure-a-string method never works.

We're passionately in love with our Mark 7 radiator, a black-anodized aluminum unit that looks like a Mopar stocker and that bolted in place flawlessly and has nutserts for the stock fan shroud. However, it was too thick for our Mopar clutch fan.

Milodon offers very nice billet oil pumps (PN 21814) and covers (we used 21215) for big Mopars, and we waited until now to try ours on the block. We needed to plug a port on the Milodon cover, and Dave Bottomley at Sweet Performance Products cut down the head of a -12 AN plug for us because there is very little clearance to the Schumacher engine mount, which also needed grinding.

We'd planned to install a Gear Vendors Under/Overdrive, but today we faced the reality that we could not get it done in time.

April 1
Working alone today, Finnie made a taller throttle-cable bracket and a coil mount. Our old coil was a drag-only MSD Pro Power, and Todd Ryden at MSD said it would cook during a long drive. We installed a PN 8251 Pro Power HVC unit, compatible with our old 7AL ignition box.

April 2
Via Facebook, reader John Derry warned that rain was forecast for Las Vegas. Great. We resolved to drive the Bee regardless. No, we didn't check to see if the wipers work.

April 4
HOT ROD starts the monthly process of releasing finalized pages to the press today. Management reamed us for essentially ignoring that, so we made Kinnan handle it from his deathbed.

We got an NHRA-approved Lokar locking trans dipstick, which is really cool because it has a larger hole than the regular ones, making it easier to use a funnel. Good: It also locks into the trans case. Bad: We needed to remove our TCI, cast-aluminum, extra-capacity trans pan to install the Lokar stick. The pan rail also needed to be clearanced for the dipstick locknut.

The fan-to-radiator clearance was solved using the clutchless fan that was on the Bee's 383 when we bought it in 1983, though we needed a spacer. We were at Pep Boys every half hour, anyway, and also got new windshield wipers hoping we'd not need them.

The fuel plumbing was finalized with the routing of the -10 feed and -8 return lines and the assembly of the reg-to-carb lines using Earl's Pro-Lite 350 black fabric braided hose and black Ano-Tuff fittings. We also made new trans-cooler lines, but used Earl's Auto-Flex steel braided hose there because of the higher pressure rating; Pro-Lite 350 is rated to 350 psi, Auto-Flex -6 to 1,500.

We made a nice harness of MSD black Super Conductor plug cables with extra neato Top Fuel–style plug ends and were relieved to find that stock spark-plug tubes work with the Stage V valve covers. We prelubed the engine in prep for fire-up but were thwarted by varnish that plugged the old fuel pump we'd pulled off the shelf. We'll have to steal one of our Bonneville spares.

April 5
We slaved from 8:00 a.m. to midnight today and killed an hour staring at paint plans for Car Craft's Dodge Demon and daydreaming about Grant's new T-bucket project.

26/28Finally.

The big news was that Grant solved the brake problem: The pedal pushrod wasn't long enough to fully stroke the master cylinder. He welded an extension and achieved a solid pedal.

After lots of fiddling and just moments after Finnie had to leave to learn his tax punishment, we fired the Hemi. The Bee had not rumbled since a Car Craft shoot in 1999. We celebrated with another magazine's sandwiches and Mountain Dew in our shop bar.

April 6, 9:20 a.m.
Today is the last day of magazine production and the last before the Super Bee needs to drive to Las Vegas. We lit the Hemi so Finnegan could bask in it, and the car huffed black smoke, stinking up the entire office. Mixture screws had no effect, and Finnegan figured out that the air bleeds were blocked with bits of packing material. Fixed.

April 6, 4:12 p.m.
The Bee became insured for street use for the first time since 1993.

April 6, 11:49 p.m.
After magazine work, we finally started wrenching at 10:00 p.m. Almost two hours later, it happened: We drove the Super Bee for the first time this century. That amazing moment was hosed by the sight of water streaming from the ends of both cylinder heads. That hadn't happened on the dyno, but a dyno doesn't have a pressurized cooling system. For the first time, we seriously questioned if we'd finish in time.

April 7, 12:19 a.m.
Stunned by the head gasket snafu, we assumed the problem would go away if we didn't look at it. Test-fitting the VFN fiberglass hood was a nice distraction—especially so because it fit shockingly well and because no one died as we removed the stock hood springs.

April 7, 1:07 p.m.
What to do when you're still in denial about failed head gaskets and need to drive a car 300 miles starting in nine hours? You wire the nitrous system! Seriously.

April 7, 3:00 a.m.
Facing no option, we pulled off the valve covers—a 30-minute task for each—and retorqued the head studs we could get to, which did not include those in the lifter valley because there was no chance we'd ever again remove the intake. Amazingly, it worked. God likes us.

27/28Retorquing the head studs to stop water leaks.

April 7, 4:30 a.m.
There are a number of niceties we could work on—like finishing the hood—but we could drive away now if we had to. After being awake nearly 24 hours, we crashed for two hours on the shop sofas.

April 7, 6:40 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Through a haze of NOS energy drink, cold pizza, and bleary eyes, we staggered through final fitment of the VFN hood and the AAR bolt-on '68 Hemi Super Stock scoop, expertly cutting a hole for the K&N air filter that was way too tall. Kinnan delivered a 14x3 air cleaner from home. Then we found the brake lights didn't work and made Grant handle it since he'd slept in his own bed. We packed, installed a FAST air/fuel reader, wired an accessory plug for our cell phones, and stared into space as the departure time from Glendora Dodge came and went.

28/28The Hemi, all dressed up for its big escape.

We called and said we'd catch up with the pack in Barstow, and just after noon—with only three laps around the block as a test run—the Rumble Bee barked to life and we pointed it north.